Dive Brief:
- Damage wrought by activists protesting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center has reached $10 million, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at a press conference last week.
- The latest incident, an act of alleged arson on April 16, damaged construction equipment including a backhoe belonging to contractor Brasfield & Gorrie on the controversial project, dubbed “Cop City” by detractors, Fox5 reported.
- Nevertheless, Dickens said the project will finish as planned in December. Birmingham, Alabama-based Brasfield & Gorrie declined to provide an update on the project.
Dive Insight:
Dickens’ office did not respond to questions about the specifics of the $10 million in damages, although a Brasfield & Gorrie spokesperson said the company wasn’t involved in developing the figure, and the damages include property owned by multiple parties.
In addition to the fire, an activist chained himself to construction equipment in March in Midtown Atlanta at the site of a different Brasfield & Gorrie jobsite, WSB-TV 2 reported, and others have vandalized construction vehicles downtown, Fox 5 reported.
At the press conference, Dickens decried the violent actions. “These are not [Martin Luther King] versions of peaceful, nonviolent protest,” Dickens said. “To the contrary, these are arsons, vandals, they are destructive.”
The 85-acre police, fire and public safety training facility is being constructed in a forested area in DeKalb County south of Atlanta, after receiving approval from the Atlanta City Council in September 2021. Activists have protested the project’s construction both as a demonstration against police brutality and from an environmental perspective, concerning the deforestation of the area.
Previous violent protests included throwing bricks, rocks and Molotov cocktails, and in the fall of 2022, activists vandalized the home of Miller Gorrie, chairman of Brasfield & Gorrie, in Alabama.